


Boatmurdered

by Unicoranglais



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: +anima - Freeform, M/M, but you don't have to know that manga to understand this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:54:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23024326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unicoranglais/pseuds/Unicoranglais
Summary: When people suffer a trauma, they become strange creatures. Jounouchi wants to duel one, and he's not going to stop. Kajiki owes a favour, and Otogi's just running for his life.
Relationships: Kajiki Ryouta | Mako Tsunami/Otogi Ryuuji | Duke Devlin
Kudos: 2





	Boatmurdered

Kajiki stared into the sky, shading his eyes against the strong noon sun. It was a clear day; a little cloud over Domino City, but it hadn’t blown out into the bay just yet.

From here, he could see the dock they’d left far behind, and could still count the tall wooden poles it rested on. A clear day, all right. Nowhere for their quarry to hide, so long as it didn’t spot them first. And even if it did glance their way, his boat was small, the sail painted shades of blue and grey to hide them.

Beasts didn’t generally look twice, in Kajiki’s experience. Too proud and lazy for it. That’d be the end of this one, just like all the others.

Or at least… This was how the hunters always did it. So he figured it’d work for him, too. They’d managed to get out here days ahead of everyone else, after all, so hopefully they’d get the first look at the thing.

“Is it here yet?”

“Not yet,” he grunted. 

His companion didn’t so much as pause. “Hey, how about now?”

Lolling in the bottom of the boat, his lazy beast of a guest raised his binoculars skywards, like extra magnification would accomplish anything. Only patience would bring them their quarry now. “It’d better hurry up. All I’ve gotten to look at is what, fish? Like, actual fish. Kinda sucks, Kajiki.” He made a face. “I get you’re a great sea duelist, man, and I do love it, but you sure suck at tourism experiences. Where’s the music? Where’s the food? And no, fish don’t count.”

Tourists. He never would understand them. “The fish pay! Of course I’m gonna catch them! And I bet you’ve never seen more caught, ever.”

“C’mon!” Jounouchi always liked to make a show of how angry he was; turning red and stomping his feet against the deck of the boat. Kind of like a tantrum, except Jounouchi was a man and therefore did not cry. “I’ve seen way, way, _way_ more fish caught on TV! And not the teeny little ones I can just stick in my pocket! Like this!”

He grabbed a fish to demonstrate, and Kajiki rolled his eyes. Fishing shows! “By one guy?!? I don’t think so!”

This was completely true, and as his esteemed guest knew it, he could only back right off the topic. “Look, I didn’t come here for fish. I came here for the _+Anima experience!_ ” Jounouchi even did the sign some city–dwellers insisted on using, crossing his index fingers to make a plus sign. “You said we’d get to see one! So, excuse me if I wanna see one _now._ ”

Had he flinched at the use of that word? Hopefully not. Kajiki could really do without the idiotic questions on the subject, thanks very much. “I’m telling you, you’ve gotta be patient. It’ll show up eventually.”

Jounouchi huffed and puffed, got to his feet so he could stomp around. “This is like, day three. In a row!” He cracked his knuckles. “You know how duelling championships I had to win to get good enough to beat you? How many guys I had to beat? Well, it’s lots! I worked hard to get this one favour off you, you know! So don’t go thinking this favour you’re giving me is just nothing. It’s actually worth a lot!”

_You won ANY duelling championships?!?_

Yeah, best not to question it. “I don’t get what your problem with fish is! The fish are part of the experience! You’ve never heard of the ocean’s bountiful gifts?” Kajiki checked the sky again; no dice. No cryptids out there, either. “Look, I know what I’m doing. The… thing you wanna see is gonna make a run for it today, and it’s gonna come right to us. I got a text and all that.”

He didn’t own a mobile phone, but not like Jounouchi knew that. It was all about morale management right now.

“Right to us? _Wow!_ ” That seemed to cheer his client up a little. “And I wanna have a close encounter, remember? I wanna be the first guy to duel a real +Anima, and prove they’re just as human as we are! You promised.”

_What are you, suicidal?_

A hunter would have completely allowed such a thing, he supposed. Maybe if it’d been someone other than a trusted friend, their bond forged in the sea itself… No. Not even then. Kajiki wasn’t going to have anyone’s blood on his hands, now or ever. No matter how much money they had. No matter whether they were human or +Anima. And Jounouchi – Jounouchi was entirely off limits.

“I _didn’t_ promise you that. I promised a boat trip.”

“With a +Anima! You agreed! And you didn’t say I _couldn’t_ get up close and personal.”

Kajiki sighed. It really wasn’t worth arguing with someone who couldn’t remember half the details of their deal. “I’ll get you close enough for some pictures, but no more. Remember, the thing’s got a bounty on it for a freaking reason.”

“Yeah, well, just ‘cos it’s got a bounty doesn’t mean you have to _take_ it!” Jounouchi whined, successfully missing the point of bounties by a cosmic mile. “I’m gonna duel it. You watch.”

_Not this again!_

“You could always just duel me, if you’ve got an itch for it. Who knows, maybe you’d win another boat trip. And you’d be a whole lot less likely to lose your head.”

“No way! It _has_ to be a +Anima!”

“Well, I’m _not_ going to just sit back and watch while that thing–”

He stopped. Jounouchi stopped, too.

And the sound of an engine Kajiki’s boat didn’t have echoed over the waves, loud and clear.

“Let’s just get it over with, all right? Take some photos or whatever.” Taking up the rudder, the fisherman pulled them into their stalking spot – as close as they could to the rocks that jutted from the middle of the bay. Jounouchi had screamed the first time he’d done it, apparently not being terribly good with distances. But Kajiki knew they were safe here, so he’d insisted.

This was another trick the hunters used out here, or at least, that’s what he’d heard back on the docks. And it seemed to have a decent chance of working, too. After all, the thing had no way of seeing them here, so long as it approached from the east. And given what it was supposed to be, there was no way it wouldn’t ride the strong winds that blew from that direction, trying to escape the city that hated and enslaved its kind.

Not many options when it came to escape, really. Only one way into Domino, unless you wanted to get arrested on the busy highway to the west. Only one way out, unless you could either hide your markings, were a swimmy sort of creature, or really wanted to get arrested in the exact same place. The old harbour sure seemed like an easy way out, with all those abandoned boats to steal.

All bait, of course. Not Kajiki’s bait, but bait Kajiki hoped to use. A good fisherman was a resourceful one, after all.

“Look, +Anima aren’t like… violent or whatever. I heard they’re so human, they can even fool actual humans.” Jounouchi wasn’t going to budge off the topic, apparently. “So I can duel ‘em.”

“And if you get onto whatever boat that thing’s taken, it’ll rip your face off, and there’s no way I’m gonna allow– ah! Sounds close. Let’s take a look.” Kajiki’s head snapped up, even as his legs carried him over to the mast of the boat. In seconds, he had the sail unfurled, letting the boat slip out of mooring. “Now that’s what I call _style!_ Just look at her!”

“Whoa!” Jounouchi’s mouth fell open, and for good reason.

Looming over the rocks was a massive vessel – the sort of boat that filled double page spreads in fishing magazines. She was an absolute beauty, all sharp angles that sliced every wave with ease. There was no rickety rocking motion; she glided over the waves like they never existed in the first place, her deck level at all times. And her engines sounded like thunder, churning the water into a white wake behind her.

Standing at the helm, hand on the steering wheel (this boat was apparently advanced enough to have a _steering wheel!_ ), was a lone figure. He was wearing one of those sleeveless vests that were fashionable these days, which was significant because it bared his mark for all to see. Kajiki’s heart sank when he saw it – that was a +Anima, all right.

Two days. That was all it had taken for someone to try to escape. With all the hunters running around… Man, they had to be getting desperate in there.

 _Couldn’t it have waited a few more days? Weeks, maybe?_ The whole reason he’d taken the trip on had just been to spend some time with Jounouchi, really. That and, well, a lost bet was a lost bet, and a favour was a favour. But Kajiki really wouldn’t have minded a longer time spent at sea, getting to show Jounouchi all the things he knew and liked best; the way the stars came out when there wasn’t any light to interfere, how to catch some pretty big fish. Hell, he’d even packed enough supplies for two weeks.

_Maybe I’ll have to lose some more duels._

“What a mark!” Jounouchi breathed, just about falling out of their boat in his eagerness to see the exotic. This one’s was exactly the kind of mark that was impossible to cover up, though obviously being sleeveless didn’t help matters. A pattern of rosettes cascaded from the newcomer’s left eye, to his left collarbone, then all the way down his bare shoulder, and flowed right down to his knuckles.

That thing would never be able to escape the hunt. No matter where he went, there was no hiding what he was.

“Wow, looks about our age,” Jounouchi commented, as the bigger boat shot towards their hiding spot. Kajiki just grunted, busying himself with the little boat and coaxing it up to speed.

“I thought they were only little kids. Sooooo, what do you reckon he is? Like, what kind? Like, a giraffe, maybe?” As Kajiki took up the rudder, Jounouchi grabbed the harpoon gun bolted to the prow of the boat in both hands, careful to duck under the boom as they flew around the rocks and out of sight. “Looks pretty cool, right? Haven’t seen those markings before. He’s got them all over!”

Kajiki forced a smile. His neck was prickling, which couldn’t be a good sign. “Yeah, nah. No idea.”

“And like, you hunt them all the time! Wow, he must be really special.”

“Uh–huh.” Okay, so he may or may not have said that to get Jounouchi on board. Hopefully it wouldn’t come back to bite him too badly. “Guess it’s pretty special, then…” He crouched low as the other ship hurtled towards them, motioning for his guest to do the same. Had the lone captain even seen the rocks? If not, this would be even easier than expected, which was already pretty damn easy.

Not like they were going to actually hunt the thing, after all.

The bigger vessel coasted past, offering a lovely view of its very vulnerable backside. Nobody there to stop them; the +Anima was all on his own. Good, no witnesses besides the guy who’d literally paid Kajiki to tag along; nobody to see them blatantly throw away the bounty. Which was probably a crime in itself, now Kajiki thought about it. Trust Jounouchi to drag him into illegal shit on accident, not that there was much he could do about it now.

“I wanna get closer!” Jounouchi insisted. “You better not just let him go past.”

Kajiki had totally been hoping to let him go past. Oh well. “Right, so… go ahead and stick the boat. Right in the side.” The fisherman motioned to the harpoon gun at their prow, for emphasis, as they slipped away from the rocks to give chase in open waters. He knew their sail was no match for the bigger boat’s awesome motor, of course, but now they had a clear shot… “We’ll let him tow us, and you can look at it or take pictures or whatever it is touri–”

**THUNK.**

“–dammit, Jounouchi!”

He shouldn’t have trusted Jounouchi with the damn gun. The harpoon had lodged squarely in the hull of the big, fancy boat, which as it turned out, didn’t have a very sturdy hull. Ballast shot in all directions, and the water rushed on in. “Get down!” the fisherman roared, and threw himself to the deck in anticipation.

Because Jounouchi was Jounouchi, he promptly leaped to his feet, all ready to fight (duel?) – only to fall flat on his face due to the bigger boat jerking Kajiki’s along behind it. Very useful of him.

He went down with a yell audible over the noise of the +Anima’s vessel, and their quarry whirled about, staring right at them. A deer in the headlights, except quite possibly a deadly, man–eating deer. Maybe not even a deer.

_Those markings… that’s definitely not a deer!_

And as he stared back, the rosettes around the left side of the thing’s eyes, neck, arm – just the left side generally – began to glow.

Conclusion: _oh shit_.

Kajiki reached for the little tackle box nestled under the mast, where he kept his knife, but thought better of it. Best to avoid fighting +Anima while he could, right? Never a good idea to take on superhumans. 

“Stand down!” he called to the figure, then remembered that probably sounded like a threat. Whoops. The glowing intensified, so he tried a bit harder to sound _nice_ : “Uh, I mean, don’t hurt us! I mean – we’re not gonna hurt you! We just… wanted to save you from your sinking ship!”

The +Anima looked from Kajiki, to the harpoon lodged in his boat, then back again. Smirked, sentient enough to understand the fisherman’s total bullshitting as total bullshitting, but at least the glowing threat of those markings dimmed away. Kajiki let out a breath he had definitely been holding – he didn’t particularly want to think about what a teenage transformee was capable of. Most +Anima that the hunters went after were just kids, who half the time didn’t even know the names of their own animals, much less what they could do.

“Bullshit…” He twitched, sniffing the air. Trembling, too. Unstable, maybe? “+Anima. You stink of +Anima. A _hunter_ , just my luck.”

“No! No. I swear, we’re not. I’m not. I can promise you that! I’m actually a fisherman. You know? Hunter of… fish? Not you. I don’t want anything to do with you.”

“Sure you don’t. That’s why you went and sank my boat.” The +Anima turned away, but only to put the boat into full throttle, dragging both vessels out into deeper water. “Is that how you sleep at night or something?”

Kajiki blinked at that. “I don’t follow, sorry?”

The +Anima shouted several more things, stuff about death or whatever, but thankfully most of it was lost over the din. The engine screamed against the sea, and the sea screamed back; that was violence enough for anyone. “Well, don’t think you can escape me now!” he finished, rather righteously. “I’m gonna hunt you and take your boat. It’s on.”

Kajiki had nothing to say to that. What could you say to such death threats, really? It was pretty clear the thing wanted him dead, and there wasn’t much he could do about it dragging his boat further and further from any real help. Nor was there much about the fact that he was currently sitting in a vessel attached, via harpoon, to another, sinking, boat.

So he just stared up at the thing, which glared right back. Then it abandoned the steering wheel, just to glare even more. At least it wasn’t showing any real signs of turning into a beast, unstable as it seemed. Its marks flickered and dimmed; had to be recent stuff.

“Man, are they usually like that?” Jounouchi’s voice was muffled, since he was still face–down in the boat. “That’s some mean talk.”

“Think he might have only just changed. He’s, uh, not exactly thinking straight, you know. Like, he thinks I’m gonna kill him ‘cos his boat’s sinking.” Kajiki hardly bothered to lower his own voice; a lot of +Anima had superhuman hearing anyway. Depended on the animal, of course, but the vast majority weren’t worth trying to hide conversations from.

“Who’s with you? He’d better not be thinking about shooting me or something. You already shot the boat.” The thing peered into his boat, staring down from on high. And suddenly, its face distorted into raw fear. “Huh–? Is that you?”

He actually looked human, for the moment. Or… scared, at least. Very, very scared. He reached over to the controls again, and turned the engine off altogether. Probably a good idea, really; Kajiki didn’t know how big expensive motorboats worked, but he guessed there was electricity involved somewhere, which wouldn’t be so good once this thing went all the way under. 

The +Anima shouted again, his voice clear now there was nothing to compete with. “Hey! Get up! I– I didn’t mean… I didn’t mean you, dummy! I’m not gonna kill you, so you’d better be all right! Hey, hunter guy – you didn’t hunt him to death or something, did you?!?” He bared his teeth then (very much human still, thankfully), then held his head a while. +Animas sure had the weirdest behaviours. “Shit, if you killed Jounouchi… Killing you won’t be enough.”

Kajiki flinched at the name. That couldn’t be some guess. “Uh, he’s not dead. He’s just stupid. So what, you know each other? Is that… a good thing? Tell me you’re friends, at least.” 

In answer, his friend rolled over and raised his bleeding nose to the sky, then angled down towards the +Anima. Wiped it off. “I–I know who, now…? And I’m not stupid!” He squinted, sitting up with his back against the mast. “Oh! Otogi? That you?”

“Might be.” The +Anima smirked. “What are you even doing down there? Or am I spoiling some kind of weird play–dead–and–then–punch–him–act? You thinking of taking his boat or something? I sure am, mine’s sinking. I… don’t think I can swim back there, Jounouchi. Or at all. You have to help me get his boat.”

“Huh?” Jounouchi looked between the two of them. “Why would I punch a friend if he’s not Honda? And how come you look like… uh, that?”

 _Like you haven’t punched me before!_ Kajiki didn’t dare interject, though. He just kept an eye on Otogi’s flickering marks. Not exactly the most stable–looking things.

“Hold up, how come you _don’t_ look like this? _” ‘_ Otogi’ peered down at them, tilting his head this way and that. “And– did you just say you’re friends with him? The big, obvious threat? You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

_Uh–oh._

Jounouchi shaded his eyes. “What threat, Kajiki? He’s that guy from Duelist Kingdom I told you about, remember? No shirt streaker unit? He’s a friend, Otogi.”

“So you call a hunter your friend?” Otogi leaned over the railing of his boat, and smiled the smile of a man who had everything sorted for life, or was possibly just really freaking suicidal. In this case, likely to be both. “Geez, Jounouchi. I thought you were like, a good guy. I guess a lack of _money_ can turn anyone into a hunter.”

A little anger in the italic, there. Enough to set Jounouchi off for days, but maybe that was the point of it. Kajiki looked between the two parties, but he could only listen for now, and hope Jounouchi didn’t say anything too disastrous.

“This isn’t about money, you moron! I just beat this guy in a duel, so he’d take me to duel +Anima! Sure, he’s a hunter, but I beat him, so he’s a good guy now! What’s not cool is how _you’re_ not cool with it!”

“Bullshit.”

Okay, that was pretty disastrous.

“It’s not freaking bullshit! You can trust me! I even brought my deck, so I hope you’re ready for a duel.” Jounouchi pointed right at Otogi, but his target didn’t so much as flinch.

“Yeah, here’s the thing. You literally just said this hunter guy was your friend. This threat. And I don’t see you helping me take him out and get off this sinking ship, which means… you’re with him. Right?”

“I’m not your–”

“Jounouchi!” Whatever kind of friendship these two had, it was clearly being tested. And not doing so well, all things considered. “Either you pick my side, or you pick his side! And you just said you’d picked his side! This isn’t rocket science!”

“There’s _sides_ now?!?”

“Yes.” Otogi smiled politely. Coldly. “From the moment someone put a harpoon in my boat and sunk it. Someone who wanted to kill me, I’m guessing, since I can’t swim and all. It sure doesn’t seem like friendly behaviour, does it? I wonder which one of you did it? Could it be… the guy closest to the gun? Surely not you, Jounouchi.”

The noise Jounouchi made in response to this strongly resembled a rubber chicken that had been torn in half by a dog with teeth of knives. _Poor guy._ Kajiki did his best to drown it in a sigh, his mind racing to try and find some words to help this poor deranged +Anima out. Between the flickering mark and near–constant mentions of murder… Otogi seemed awfully unstable, after all. 

“Look. Something bad must’ve just happened to you, to make you all – you know, like that. So I guess you’re in a bad mood, right? Having a bad day?”

“Why would you care?” Otogi cocked his head. “You’re gonna make a lot out of my bounty. Aren’t you having a good day?”

“Uh, yeah. That. Look, a +Anima that big has to be really powerful. The bigger the +Anima, the bigger trauma. You’re uh, doing really well to hold it back. So, keep that up.”

“My dad… You couldn’t even begin to get it. He had my _neck…_ ” While the annoying +Anima (+annoyance?) took a step back from the railing, his hands curled into fists. This wasn’t over, not by a mile. “You’re a threat, aren’t you? Stop pretending, I know you’re a threat. That’s what my +Anima’s telling me. This prickling feeling… Yeah, you _have_ to be. You’re going to drown me, just like he was gonna.”

_Dad._

Prickle, prickle down his neck. Not good. Kajiki shook his head. “Well, maybe your +Anima’s wr… I mean, not right! I’m not a bad guy, and he’s not either. So, you’re not going to have any more bad stuff happen. No drownings. You’re gonna be okay, Ottegg. I mean, Otoi.”

“Otogi!” Jounouchi hissed.

“Yeah, that.”

Otogi snorted, shifting his weight from foot to trembling foot. “What would you know? You’re some shitty hunter who doesn’t even know my name… Yeah. I have to take you out. Both of you. Because Jounouchi tried to kill me, just now. I… this feeling has to be right.”

Yeah, definitely not a stable +Anima there. At all. They had to be in trouble now; they had to get away from this thing, and soon. The fisherman weighed up his options, watching Otogi’s ship slowly slip further into the water. “You can’t listen to your +Anima. It’s just a beast. You’ve got to listen to your friend.”

Jounouchi grinned, and as usual said the worst possible thing for the circumstances. Classic. “Right, because I didn’t try to kill you! I just… really suck at harpooning stuff! But if you wanna duel to get back at me, I’d be happy to–”

“So you _did_ shoot that harpoon. I knew it!” Markings aglow again, Otogi’s left eye narrowed and reshaped into a yellow, slitted number. He was finally cracking, and cracking into something dangerous. “That’s it! I’m hunting you first, hunter!”

_Shit, shit, shit._

“We’ve got nothing to do with the damn hunters! In fact, _I’ve never hunted a +Anima in my life!_ ” Kajiki roared.

That at least made Otogi think twice, even if he did start to laugh. At Kajiki’s expense, no doubt. “Wow, seriously? So you _lied to my friend?_ You’ve got some nerve.”

_A trap._

“You haven’t hunted any? I thought you’d gotten a heap!” Jounouchi growled, looking at the fisherman with more than a little worry. Great, now the lie was out in the open. Lovely.

“Don’t believe him, Jounouchi! He’s just trying to save himself here. I wonder if he knows how much _this_ is worth? Not that he’d tell you. I bet he was planning on stabbing you in the back once he made the cash. _”_

Tossing his vest to the deck of the boat, Otogi now presented his entire left side to Kajiki, the pale skin blotched with his incredibly ugly +Anima sign. The fisherman had never seen coverage like it, though then again, he didn’t usually see teenage +Anima. Most +Anima tended to turn when they were young kids, and their marks were only small. Whatever this guy had been through to get such an enormous sign, it must have been hellish.

“I do know what that’s worth.” Kajiki tried to met Jounouchi’s gaze, only to find that stare firmly directed at Otogi. Great.

“Really! Maybe you can tell me how much it is, then. As a hunter. Go on, tell me how much the _murder attempt’s_ worth, prove I’m allowed to come over there and kill you first. Or _don’t_ and risk losing your friend. You can’t win this one, can you?”

As the sinking ship settled lower in the water, Kajiki found himself staring less _up_ at the obnoxious creature and more just… _at_ it. Level, almost. Well within reach of whatever natural weapons the guy was about to sprout.

Jounouchi went to say something, likely something stupid. Maybe even something _really_ stupid. But faced with the prospect of fighting an almost–fully grown +Anima, seconds away from a full–on transformation, clearly murderous and out of control to boot, Kajiki wasn’t about to let his apparent friend get a word out.

“Enough, Otogi”, he snarled. Stepped in front of the dumb blonde, even. Was that what a hunter would do? Possibly. It didn’t particularly matter anymore. “If you want me to be the bad guy, then fine– but you can bloody well _keep Jounouchi out of it!_ ”

“Is that a confession?” the +Anima smirked. Expecting some sort of witty quip, perhaps. Maybe a threat. Kajiki could feel the challenge, in Otogi’s eyes and in his own humming neck.

But Kajiki had nothing to give him. In fact, he’d only moved in front of Jounouchi for one reason: it got him closer to the mast. With one quick, fluid motion, he reached into the tackle box.

And lobbed the knife with all his strength.

“Rargh!” The moment the blade flashed through the air, Otogi threw himself backwards onto the deck of his ship. He landed impossibly, twisting in air to come about on all fours with a sick crack of the spine. Too–sharp nails tore into the soft carpet of the luxury motorboat, as the +Anima clawed for balance with a body shifting, contorting in panic.

But the knife went absolutely nowhere near him, instead slicing through the rope of the harpoon.

“Hey!” Jounouchi rushed to the prow of the boat, but it was too late. The sail billowed, carrying Kajiki’s boat off and away from the monster’s, away from the harbor and probable hunters getting ready to follow the sinking ship. They’d hide out on the sea a few days, and return when the horror had been nicely captured. Kajiki was done with this whole mess.

Of course, he still had to deal with his friend first. Jounouchi looked about ready to chuck himself off the boat and start swimming. He probably would have done it, had Otogi’s boat not been half–sunk and on its way to completely submerged. “The hell was that for?!? I was about to… think of something good to say! I could have brought him back, and we could have covered up those marks, and taken him back to Domino, and he could have duelled me, and we could have kept this whole thing a secret and he could live normally and he can’t swim so how the hell is he supposed to– hey, _how come you lied_ –”

“He was going to rip you apart!” Kajiki snarled back. “You come first, Jounouchi! And he’s got no way of hiding marks that bad. If you want to save him, leave him to swim! His +Anima can just take care of him, they all do, _that’s the whole point of_ –”

Otogi rudely cut them off by howling _,_ like he was some demented werewolf and not a clearly feline +Anima. As he charged them, running on all fours across the deck of his ruined and very expensive boat, his left side went up in a blur of black fur, massive claws popping from human fingers. His left arm bloated with muscle; this was no house–cat +Anima. Tail lashing around, fur fluffing up in a display of raw anger, ears flat against his wild hair, he cut a pretty intimidating sight.

“Panther,” Kajiki breathed. He hadn’t seen one of those before, and this sure wasn’t a cute one either. Little wonder the hunters left the teen +Anima well alone, and just went for the cute little kids. Otogi looked like he could tear a guy in half, if he really put his mind to it.

He was likely thinking about it right now, in fact.

“Whatever, you don’t get it! I was going to tell him, it was _important–!_ ”

Jounouchi got no further with that, since Otogi got to the railing, and he hauled himself up, gouging the metal with a screech like nothing else. Then he was _leaping_ , a leap as utterly impossible as his earlier landing. He landed, fair and square, in the middle of the boat; a mountain of teeth and fur and claws between Kajiki and Jounouchi.

“I’m safe,” he mumbled.

Kajiki wasn’t too sure about that, given Otogi was completely _gone_. His whole mark was hidden under fur and rippling muscle. He shuddered with the sheer effort of keeping whatever instincts he now had under check, gouging the wood of the boat with his claws as he struggled. The few times Kajiki had seen this kind of thing play out, it’d always ended poorly for someone.

Usually anyone who wasn’t the crazed +Anima. Sure enough, Otogi’s head soon snapped up. “So… Tell him _what?_ Is that some kind of threat?!?”

“I was going to tell him – you – that, that, that–!” Jounouchi fiddled around in his pockets, searching, searching. His voice shook and stammered with utter desperation. “I mean, I was gonna duel you! Th–that was the whole point! Why not freaking believe me for two seconds?!? Huh? Huh?!?”

Kajiki could completely understand his fear – Otogi’s mark might be hidden, but he could feel it even from his end of the boat, one hell of a power trip. His own body was seizing up in fear of the apex +Anima, and his neck had gone far beyond mere prickling; he was well into buzzing territory now. This was one out–of–control spirit, right here.

_What kind of trauma did you really go through, Otogi? This mark… the sheer strength of it… was it all really just your dad?_

“Who’s a hunter… who isn’t–? Is, isn’t, is… are. You are. You have to be. That harpoon…” And Otogi got up, approaching him rather leisurely with only half a glance back at Kajiki. For such a cumbersome–looking +Anima, rather obviously mis–matched in his upper limbs, he sure moved with a catlike (pantherlike?) grace. “Well, it doesn’t matter. I’m hungry.”

“H–hungry?!?” Jounouchi recoiled halfway up the prow, then continued rifling through his pockets. “You’ve gotta be kidding. I– I’ve got a fish here somewhere!” 

_Don’t antagonise the angry, out of control +Anima on the only non–sinking boat we’ve got, you freaking idiot!_ Not like Kajiki could exactly do much besides think, though. What _could_ you do against a panther +Anima, anyway? He’d already thrown the knife in the tackle box, and the harpoon gun had been used.

“A fish–!” Otogi reeled back at that, then the claws came out. “You’ll die for that. I’m hungry, terribly… sorry. Jounouchi, I don’t get it. What’s wrong with me?” And he stepped back, twitching and shuddering. “Why would I eat a dead fish? Living is better.”

And just like that, in the span of a mere second–

Otogi turned on his heel. And was coming straight at Kajiki’s face, claws first.

He’d been expecting it, of course. But the moment still hit incredibly hard, the buzzing in Kajiki’s neck becoming unbearable. _Danger, danger–_ and then, in one painful moment, it was over.

Claws raked over bony plates of blackened armour, and unsurprisingly, claws didn’t do too well. Otogi pulled back, and struck again, but the armour was only spreading, and there was basically nothing he could do against literal bone, even with all the strength of a big cat behind his blows.

“Wait, does that mean– you could’ve duelled me, dammit!” Jounouchi, of course. “I feel like you offered… wow, armour? What even is that?”

“Pleco. It’s a kind of catfish, but with armour.”

It had been a long time since he’d considered his own mark, honestly – bit hard to hunt fish when your own spirit guardian or whatever _was_ a fish. Kajiki usually just ignored it; he’d not had it come up in years. Since he had the Legendary Fisherman, it wasn’t like he needed a +Anima mark to keep him safe in life.

His mark wasn’t that significant, anyway. Catfish weren’t really aggressive things, after all. He had a new addition, which would surely cause his mark to spread down his arms: fins at his elbows, stiff and bony things. Not really blades, but decent enough for bludgeoning or swimming. The armour covered Kajiki’s chest and neck, protecting him from anything Otogi tried. He wasn’t sure he could breathe underwater like this, but quite probably.

No need to try to drown just to find out, though.

_Drown…_

So, why was it back? Was it Otogi’s presumed daddy issues reacting with his mark? Was it their species going up against each other? Or was it just a fear of death? He wasn’t sure what had made it come back, but this could only mean trouble going forwards. No more fishing in Domino with a more visible mark, certainly.

Well, never mind the trouble going forwards – he had trouble right here! Otogi was still batting futilely at Kajiki’s bony armour, trying to find a crack somewhere. Not exactly life–or–death stuff, but still, very annoying.

Jounouchi reached for the unloaded harpoon rifle, like that was going to help matters at all. “So, uh. Can you help Otogi? At all? I wanna duel him too, y’know.”

“I mean, I can try.” Ducking under those giant teeth, Kajiki slammed one fin into his enemy’s face, then grabbed him by the shoulders – one furred, one not – and dragged him close, just so he couldn’t get at Jounouchi. Claw and bite as he tried, Otogi couldn’t do anything much in return.

But what the hell could _he_ do?

Think. Think. “C’mon, man. You have to snap out of it. What the hell did you think before you… jumped. You jumped!”

From boat to boat. Otogi’s +Anima had only activated to save him from _sinking._ That was the solution, here; it’d been right in front of him the whole time. A very human fear of drowning so great, he’d bring his +Anima into it to avoid it. No wonder his mark had been flickering, surrounded by water at all times.

How Otogi must have held himself back, through an incredibly unstable time of things… just so long as he thought he wouldn’t have to swim for it. It really was impressive how long he’d managed, until Kajiki had cut that rope. Put him into this state, put Jounouchi in danger.

He had to fix this.

“You can swim without a +Anima. You can do it.” Kajiki told the dangerous creature, and Otogi shuddered against him. Understanding, maybe. “And you’re gonna hate this. And that’s fine.” 

And then he jumped off the boat, taking Otogi with him.

**Author's Note:**

>  _'Cause there are monsters and there are men  
>  There are monsters that live in your head  
> There are monsters that we all should dread_  
> \-------  
> I love +Anima. If you want a short manga series which talks about surprisingly dark and traumatic shit, and how people reconcile, I can only recommend it. Don't let the kiddie style of the art fool you for a second. ;)
> 
> That said, I have incredibly mixed feelings about this fic, which originally started as far more of a horror. The original ending had kajiki outright attempting to drown otogi, while jounouchi bled out in the boat with his fate uncertain. When your fic changes this drastically, and especially when you were confident in your original plan, you can't help but wonder what could have been. Did you make a mistake? Was this the right choice?
> 
> I think you have to make missteps when you're trying to work out things, though. Misstep or not, I can only respect the fic for what it is, and respect what it's taught me.


End file.
